St. John Ambulance, Canada’s only national first aid training provider, is building a new Winnipeg headquarters for its training and community services programs serving Manitoba, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.
Construction got underway in the spring on the new 13,248 square foot structure, which is located at the same location as the national organization’s previous, 55-year-old training centre across Portage Avenue from Polo Park, Winnipeg’s largest and busiest shopping mall.
“We realized about 15 years ago that we needed a new facility,” says Brent Fowler, CEO for N.W.T., Manitoba and Nunavut with St. John Ambulance. “We started planning our new building three years ago. We began construction of our new Centre for Excellence in First Air training community services centre right after the demolition of our old facility.”
Fowler reports the organization looked to Winnipeg-based M Builds, formerly Manshield Construction, one of Western Canada’s construction companies for the facility, and took a design-build project management approach to building the new $5-million structure.
“This approach has worked well, so we chose to go that route as well,” Fowler says.
He notes the construction process is expected to be straightforward.
The building will be big enough to house four large classrooms and well as a number of spaces for volunteers.
Funding for the project has been provided in part by the Province of Manitoba, Manitoba’s credit unions, the Johnston Group and other corporate and private donors.
St. John Ambulance trains more than 20,000 Manitobans every year, seven days a week, throughout the province in first aid, CPR and AED lifesaving skills, with demand continuing to grow.
The new service centre is expected to be ready for occupancy next March.
Recent Comments
comments for this post are closed